More specifically, the invention concerns an improvement in brake pads allowing to noticeably reducing noise of the known brakes.
As it is well known, in the recent years, particular attention was paid to the braking devices for railway vehicles, also bearing in mind the always higher speed that said vehicles must reach.
In this context, a particular development had the solution according to the Italian Patent No. 1,261,780 filed on Apr. 5, 1993 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,108), and concerning a “disc brake pad with sintered friction elements”.
The solution suggested in the above Italian patent concerns a pad wherein the single sintered friction elements, having a cylindrical or polyhedral shape, are mounted in small groups on elastic metallic laminas, on their ends. The metallic laminas are fixed by spacers to a base plate, in such a way that each end of the lamina comprises an independently movable bracket, to absorb deformations due to thermal load and thus realising an uniform contact pressure between the single friction elements and the brake disc. Said solution has very good operative features, confirmed by the wide use of the same brakes.
However, the solution suggested in said patent has some problems relevant to the noise of the pad during the braking action, noise that is very irksome.